Middle East

By BosNewsLife Middle East Service with reporting by BosNewsLife's Stefan J. Bos TEHRAN, IRAN (BosNewsLife)-- Iranian Christian songwriter and church worker Alireza Seyyedian was detained Wednesday, March 14, at the Iranian-Turkish border while trying to flee Iran, a friend who assists him told BosNewsLife.  

By BosNewsLife News Center BUDAPEST, HUNGARY (BosNewsLife)-- Central and Eastern Europe's first Christian news agency on the Internet, BosNewsLife, has launched a new website (bosnewslife.com) and a strategic partnership with Worthy Ministries, an organization specialized in Christian news "and spreading the Gospel around the world," its founder confirmed Friday, December 5.

By BosNewsLife Middle East Service TEHRAN, IRAN (BosNewsLife)-- Christians in Iran and around the world were praying and fasting Wednesday, April 11, for Iranian Pastor Youcef Nadarkhani who celebrated his 35th birthday in prison where he awaited possible execution on charges of "apostasy", or abandoning Islam.

By BosNewsLife Middle East Service with reporting by BosNewsLife's Stefan J. Bos JERUSALEM, ISRAEL (BosNewsLife)-- An influential Jewish rights organization says the killing of three kidnapped Israeli teenagers should prompt the United States to pressure Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas to end his cooperation with Hamas, the militant group. The Simon Wiesenthal Center (SWC) made the appeal shortly after Israeli authorities confirmed they found the bodies of Eyal Yifrah, 19, Gilad Shaar, 16, and Naftali Fraenkel, a 16-year-old with dual Israeli-American citizenship.

By BosNewsLife Middle East Service DAMASCUS, SYRIA (BosNewsLife)-- At least four people were killed when a suicide bomber detonated his explosives in a Christian area of the Syrian capital Friday, June 28,  amid warnings from investigators that the country's minority Christians are becoming victims of "disproportionate violence and abuse" in a war that has claimed as many as 100,000 lives.

By Stefan J. Bos, Chief International Correspondent BosNewsLife TEHRAN (BosNewsLife)-- At least eight people remained missing Saturday, August 15, after Iranian security forces raided a gathering of new Christian converts in the city of Karaj as part of a wider crackdown on house churches in Iran, well-informed Christians told BosNewsLife.

By BosNewsLife Middle East Service TEHRAN, IRAN (BosNewsLife)-- The detained Assyrian pastor of an evangelical church in Iran has been tortured and told he may be executed for converting Muslims to Christianity and related charges, his wife and Christians with close knowledge about his situation said.

By BosNewsLife Middle East Service with reporting by BosNewsLife's Stefan J. Bos DAMASCUS/BEIRUT (BosNewsLife)-- Thousands of Christians remained trapped in a besieged village in Syria late Friday, August 24, without food and regular electricity, a local leader and Catholic aid workers told BosNewsLife.

By BosNewsLife Middle East Service CAIRO, EGYPT (BosNewsLife)-- Egyptian police have detained six men after an armed mob stripped an elderly Christian woman and paraded her naked on the streets in an attack in which seven Christian homes were also looted and torched, security and church officials say.